The head of VW SA Interview – Secret new model, Golf 8 R, Polo theft challenges, half-tonne bakkie?

Ciro De Siena

13 Apr 2023

In an exclusive interview with us, Volkswagen South Africa’s new managing director Martina Biene shares some insights about the Golf 8 R delay, Polo theft challenges, a half-tonne bakkie and a secret new model to built right here in SA.

We were grateful to be joined by Martina Biene, MD of Volkswagen SA, for a wide-ranging and candid interview with Ciro De Siena in our Cape Town podcast studio. Martina offered us tonnes of info about the future of Volkswagen in South Africa, including plans for hydrogen, plug-in hybrids, the cost of new Polos, the challenges around the the theft of Polo, the secret new model that they will be building in Kariega, the possibility of a half-tonne bakkie and the widely discussed delay of the Golf 8 R launching in South Africa.

We hope you enjoy this exclusive interview and we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Ciro De Siena

Ciro built his first car website back in his university days and despite denting his first ever test car, it launched his career. He's still at this car journalism gig 16 years later and over the years has hosted live TV segments on national television and hosts a regular car segment on CapeTalk radio. He is most at his happiest however producing content for the Cars.co.za Youtube channel.

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